Cyber Dreams 4.51 - Homesick

Here's today's delivery :)

Lots of conversation. Some of you might hate that, but I think some good stuff gets covered.

Thanks for everything,

Plum

Juliet sat in her pilot’s seat, lazily watching the vid feeds from the various external cameras and trying to come up with the right words for her message to Shiro and Alice. She’d handled the remnants of Mary Moon’s crew exactly as planned. First, she’d stripped the ship of personal weapons, stacking them into the small cargo compartment of the medical ship—pistols, rifles, submachine guns, all manner of knives and vibroblades, boxes and boxes of ammunition, and a big, plastic box full of odds and ends, from grenades to mysterious syringes to swords and brass knuckles. That done, she’d explained to the crew the extent of the watchdog’s capabilities. They were, essentially, already in jail aboard that ship, and they’d be denied the ability to contact anyone for help. They could ride along peacefully or be incapacitated by the software.

The two synths had been the easy part. Angel reset them to factory specifications and then uploaded a rudimentary piloting program; all they had to do was get the two ships to a rendezvous point where, hopefully, the crew of the Kowashi would take over. “Okay, Angel, start the recording.”

“I’m using the cam in your console if you want to focus on it. Ready when you are.”

Juliet sat up straighter, smoothed her short red and black hair away from her face, and cleared her throat. “Ahem. Hey, Shiro and Alice. I have an update for you on my situation and also a request for your help. Well, and . . . well, I have some bad news for you, too, Alice. I’m really sorry.” Juliet felt tears welling in her eyes again, and she clenched her jaw, looking up and to the side for a minute while she let the emotion pass. It was frustrating because she’d thought she’d gotten it all out of her system. “Um, anyway, you know about the job I was helping Nick with, yeah? Well, maybe not the details, but that can wait. The important thing is that it was really dangerous, and I didn’t do a good enough job protecting Nick. I’m so sorry to say he was killed.”

Juliet was quiet for a long few seconds, and Angel said, “I can edit out your ‘ums’ and ‘wells’ and remove these pauses. Take your time.”

Spurred by her words, Juliet continued, “So, we were infiltrating a pirate base trying to rescue a very powerful man’s daughter. It turns out she doesn’t want rescuing, at least I don’t think so, but that’s nothing for you to worry about; I’ll handle that. The important thing is that a faction of the pirates figured out who Nick was and killed him. I, uh, killed the ones responsible and captured some of the crew along with a couple of ships. I’m sending them your way. Angel, my PAI, will attach the exact coordinates, but they should be near Luna in a week or so. The ships will send you regular updates on their progress—all automated.

“There are quite a few dead pirates in the walk-in fridge on the larger ship and four living ones. I installed some software in their PAIs to kind of hobble them. If they try to remove them or do anything to escape or try to stop the ships, they’ll receive some involuntary electro-shock therapy. It sounds horrible, and it is, but they deserve it. Well, maybe not, but Nick didn’t deserve what they did to him, either.

“Um, the program in their PAIs will self-delete when you have them in custody, and you say the phrase, ‘time to pay the piper.’ Don’t blame me—Angel came up with it. The, uh, reason I’m giving you this headache is that I was hoping you could collect their bounties and do something with the ships. The interceptor is decent, not as shiny as the Lady Hawk, but decent and worth a good amount. The frigate is a mess. Angel says the reactor is in need of servicing, and the same is true with most of the other major systems. Still, it’s a big ship and probably worth a pretty penny as salvage or even sold at auction. I’m sure you can get a salvage claim for it—it’s a known pirate vessel.

“If you have better ideas, I’d love to hear them. Like, do you think it’s worth saving for us to use with our gunship business? I don’t know; it seems like we’d have to expand our crew a lot, and that’s a big deal, I’m sure—finding people we can trust.” Juliet felt like she had more to say, more to explain, but she couldn’t think of anything she’d left out, at least not anything she couldn’t save for later.

“Well, I have some loose ends to clean up around here, but hopefully, I’ll return to Luna in a couple of weeks.” Juliet paused, gathering a breath and giving her voice a chance to settle; she’d felt it start to quaver as she contemplated her next words. “Please stay safe, okay? I can’t stand the idea of losing any more friends. You guys know how much I appreciate you, right? I wish I’d told Nick more.” Despite her best efforts, a tear broke free from her eye, sliding down her cheek, and she hurriedly added, “I’ll message you again soon.”

“Anything else?” Angel prompted after a few seconds.

“No. I think that’s good.” Juliet wiped her glove over her cheek, steeling herself for what came next. “Okay, use the contact info and authentication code we got from Mary and contact Tornado.”

“Now? You’re ready?”

“Yeah.” Juliet watched as Angel opened a new comm window and listened as the secure line beeped, indicating an attempt to connect. After thirteen beeps, the window flickered, and an image of Roy Tornado materialized. It was a little grainy, and Juliet could see from the connection status that there was a slight delay in the signal, but it was him.

“You’re not Mary,” he announced, his pencil-thin brows narrowing over his too-big, uncanny eyes.

“Mary’s dead. She killed and tortured my partner. You didn’t have anything to do with that, did you?”

“Huh?” His eyebrows jumped upward. “First of all, no, I didn’t. Second, you got a lot of nerve calling me up to tell me you killed one of my partners.”

“Come on, Roy. Drop the act. You didn’t like Mary, and you know she had it coming. I’m contacting you for a reason. You wanna hear it?”

“I’m still on the line, ain’t I?”

“Okay, well, let me lead with the carrot—Mary sent me to get some information, and I got a lot more than she bargained for. What I have will make you rich many times over. I’m talking big money but also big trouble if you don’t play your cards right. Are you still listening?”

“Sure I am, but why me? Smells like a trap. You working for one of the corps?”

“Nope. My plan will piss off a lot of big corps, but if you play things right, they’ll be fighting with each other, and you’ll be able to change your life.” Juliet paused, running her words through her mind, ensuring this was the right moment to drop one of her cards. She nodded, mostly to herself, and added, “This is what you need to help Antigone get free, Roy. To change your lives so you can live how you really want.”

“Wait a minute.” The screen went black, and Juliet had to double-check to see that he hadn’t cut the connection.

“Did you scare him off?” Angel asked.

“I don’t think so. I might have freaked him out a little, though. He might be talking to Antigone right now . . .” The screen came back to life, interrupting her.

“I am about thirty seconds from deleting this secure connection and disappearing. You better explain yourself pronto.”

“You asked why I contacted you. Well, Antigone’s the reason; she has connections that will make the plan work. Did you just ask her about me? She doesn’t know me, but I know about her. I know about her father, and that creep needs to answer for some of his crimes. What if I told you we could take him out while making you rich and putting Antigone in charge of her father’s businesses? I know she’s already rich, but wouldn’t you like to be your own man? Wouldn’t you feel more secure in your destiny?” Juliet knew Roy was a romantic; she’d been in his head before, and there was no way he’d give up his independence to be Antigone’s boy toy. He had to have a carrot to chase if she wanted this plan to work.

“Well, I’m still listening.”

“Okay. I’d like to meet in person for the details, but there’s no way I’m coming back to the Vengeance. Can we meet aboard my ship? You can bring bodyguards, but I’m all alone.”

“Uh-uh. Not until I have an idea what’s going on. Still feels like a trap.”

Juliet had expected as much. “Fine, but I’m going to be vague for now. I found evidence, no more than evidence; I found the plans and designs for some tech that one of Barrington’s businesses is involved in. I’m confident I can recreate the schematics for the equipment, at least to the point that a competing corp could figure out the rest. It’s something very, very top secret, completely hidden in plain sight. I’m talking tech that any major corp would throw millions at you for just to understand that it’s possible.”

“How does this help Antigone?”

“Well, she knows her dad’s information. She has contacts in his company. I want you to sell this information to a few corps, maybe a dozen; the more, the better. The trick is, I want you to sell it, but I want it to look like Antigone’s father did the selling. After you’ve cashed in, Antigone will lure her dad to one of the handoffs, and you’ll tip off the corpo sec for the company I stole the data from. He gets caught red-handed, Antigone goes home to clean up the mess, and you collect a few fat paydays. More importantly, the tech won’t be in one corp’s hands anymore, which is really all I care about at this point.”

“So you’re just some kind of saint?”

“God, no. I owe Sir Rodric Barrington plenty, and I’m going to enjoy seeing him get some justice.” She paused, then shrugged and added, “I’m also trying to keep one corp from dominating society for the next few hundred years, and I figure that if the information is disseminated enough, there will be competition, but there won’t be wars. I’m probably being naïve; we’ll find a way to kill each other over this stuff.”

“I’m intrigued, especially about the me getting rich part.”

“You can’t kid me, Roy. I looked into your eyes. I know you’re a romantic. You want Antigone to be happy, and hiding in the junk belt on a broken-down ship with a bunch of scumbags isn’t going to keep her happy for long.”

“Say I agree. Why do we need to meet?”

Juliet waited a moment before answering, ensuring her expression was neutral but firm. “I’ve been stabbed in the back too many times. Literally. I won’t be transmitting this data, even on a secure line. I want some insurance that things will go the way I plan, which means you or Antigone are riding this out with me on my ship.” She saw Roy opening his mouth to object and held up a hand. “Hear me out, Roy. Come to the meeting. Let me show you what I’ve got. Let Antigone weigh in. You guys are my best option but not my only one. Understand? If we can’t come to an agreement, we can part ways, and I’ll figure something else out. There are plenty of corps that would help me get rid of Barrington for what I have.”

“I’ll be in touch.”

“Hold on. One more thing before you go—my cargo vessel, the Humpback. Can you make sure no one messes with it? The bodies in the airlock are there because Barrington ordered the crew to be killed. I have footage of security operatives doing the killing, and I’m sure Antigone can have her contacts in his company dig up his connection to them. I doubt it would stand up in any sort of court, but it will help solidify his link to the stolen data if we use the Humpback for the exchange.”

“Jesus, how long have you been planning this?”

“I’ve been trying to work out a way to get Barrington from day one. That’s my business, though. I’ll be waiting for your call.”

Tornado nodded and cut the line, and Angel immediately asked, “Do you think he’ll do it? Were you serious about using another corp to get Barrington?”

“Yes, and yes. I think I got him on the hook. He doesn’t want to lose Antigone, and she won’t be happy with the life they’re leading. She’ll want to see what I have because she wants to get her dad out of power. As for another corp, I’d hate to take the risk, but it could work.”

“What should we do to prepare?”

“Well, I’ve learned not to trust pirates, so when we have them connect to the data deck with our presentation of the stolen information and videos of the equipment, you’re going to slip a modified watchdog into their heads. That’s step one.”

“You sure are giving me a lot of credit. I’m sure Antigone has an expensive PAI with very watchful ICE. I can probably defeat it, but she’d know something was happening.”

“Right, dang it. Well, Barrington mentioned to Larry that Antigone jailbroke her PAI. Maybe it’ll be more vulnerable. If you can’t get past her ICE without making a scene, we’ll have to make do without. Either way, we won’t move forward with the plan unless one of those two stays with us for collateral.”

“Well, the more I think about it, the more I think the challenge might be entertaining. What if I built a purpose-specific daemon, not unlike Fido, and broke it into innocuous bits, adding them to the ‘presentation’ you mentioned? The bits could reform in the subject’s memory, and from there, the daemon could begin building and installing a watchdog!”

“That sounds . . . amazing! We’d certainly be a lot more secure with something like that installed, but even if you can’t, I think this can work. As long as every party has something they’re trying to gain by the whole thing, we can hopefully keep from betraying each other.”

“I notice you say ‘we’—what are you gaining?”

“I’m gaining a lot, Angel. Seeing Barrington brought down is going to really, really help me sleep at night. On top of that, Larry and Cleo will be safe. Larry might not get the payday Barrington promised, but he’s doing fine financially.” Juliet looked at the view screens, watching the asteroids and junk pass by. “Well, it doesn’t matter to me, but Nick would be glad to know Ray didn’t have to worry about Barrington, either.” The medical ship was a long way from where she’d encountered Mary Moon, and they were traveling on inertia. The drives were off, the reactor on low output; she was hiding, and it was pretty darn easy in that junk belt. She could see why the pirates liked it.

Juliet closed her eyes and let her thoughts drift over her plan. What she liked the most was that she’d be putting things into motion, but people like Roy Tornado and Antigone would be doing all the legwork. They’d be the ones to contact other corps, probably using Antigone’s connections in that sphere of influence, to sell the data. They’d be the ones to figure out how to make it look like Rodric Barrington was leaking and making the sales. Antigone would be the one to lure her father to the meet-up, and her contacts in his company would be the ones to send in corpo-sec, busting him. The fact that it would take place on the Humpback just felt poetic . . .

“I have an incoming message from the Kowashi.”

“That was fast.”

“Nearly two hours, but, yes, it seems they responded immediately.”

“Well, play it!”

A vid window opened on her AUI, and Juliet saw Alice looking much the way she’d last seen her but with a crease of worry between her brows. “Lucky! We got your message, and we’ll do what you asked, but we’re worried about you! I’m really sorry about Nick; I could see how much it messed you up, but you’ve gotta understand something—Nick was on borrowed time! That guy should’ve died a dozen times when I was flying with him, and you saw first-hand how many dogfights he’s been in. I hope he didn’t suffer, and I’m sorry to know he’s dead, but I’ve been braced for news like this for more than ten years. That doesn’t make it okay, obviously, and I’m sure I’ll cry tonight when I’m lying in the dark, but don’t beat yourself up, okay?”

She paused for a minute, and her face was so still that Juliet thought the message was over. Then she started speaking again, “Don’t do anything heroic, all right? I could tell you’re up to something, but don’t go getting yourself killed, too! We miss you, and we’re looking forward to your return. The gunship’s coming along, and Bennet and Aya need your help to finish things up. Don’t worry about the pirates or those ships you sent this way; we’ll handle things. Shiro wants to know if you remembered to set permissions for us.

“Your friend Honey stopped by the hangar the other day to drop something off for you. Bennet was there, and he put it in your cabin on the gunship. He wanted to open it so he could tell you what it was, but Aya threatened to chop his fingers off or something. Anyway, I’m babbling now, but I want you to see there are some good reasons to get back here, safe and sound. So do that, you hear me? Contact us again soon. Let us know you’re on your way back home.” She stopped speaking, offered a short wave, and the screen went dark.

Juliet sat quietly for a long minute, and Angel finally spoke up, “That was sweet.”

“Yeah. It really was. Let’s hope Tornado and Antigone play ball so we can get done with this business and get out of here. I’m starting to feel homesick.” Her words came quickly, without thought, and when Juliet heard herself say “homesick,” she smiled, and tears filled her eyes, but for a change, they weren’t sad or frustrated tears.